Modern Art and Mass Culture

A painting of a woman, her breasts exposed, hoisting the French flag as she leads armed men across a battlefield.

The painting Liberty Leading The People (1830), perhaps the most influential work of artist Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863). (This image is in the public domain. Source: Web Gallery of Art.)

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

4.602

As Taught In

Spring 2012

Level

Undergraduate

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Course Description

Course Features

Course Description

This class provides an introduction to modern art and theories of modernism and postmodernism. It focuses on the way artists use the tension between fine art and mass culture to mobilize a critique of both. We will examine objects of visual art, including painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, prints, performance and video. These objects will be viewed in their interaction with advertising, caricature, comics, graffiti, television, fashion, folk art, and "primitive" art.

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Related Content

Caroline Jones. 4.602 Modern Art and Mass Culture. Spring 2012. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.


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